Elon Musk is considering moving to Mars even though he admits the bold venture comes with a “good chance of death”.
The billionaire entrepreneur thinks there’s a 70% likelihood he will travel to the planet aboard one of his own Space X rockets.
It will could also be a permanent move. “We think you can come back but we’re not sure,” the SpaceX co-founder told the US TV programme Axios.
“I know exactly what to do. I’m talking about moving there.”
Musk, 47, believes commercial flights to Mars will be possible within seven years and cost around £200,000.
When asked if it would simply provide rich people with an escape from the problems of Earth, he said: “Your probability of dying on Mars is much higher than on Earth. It’s gonna be hard. There’s a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space.
″[There’s] not much time for leisure. And even after doing all this, it’s a very harsh environment. So … there’s a good chance you die there. We think you can come back but we’re not sure.
“Now, does that sound like an escape hatch for rich people?”
Asked why he would even consider it giving the slim chance of survival, he added: “There’s lots of people who climb mountains. People die on Mount Everest all the time.
“They like doing it for the challenge”
Musk may have other reasons to want to leave Earth though – he’s currently being sued in two separate cases.
A British diver who helped rescue youth football players trapped in a cave in Thailand is suing him after he baselessly claimed the Briton a “paedo” in a tweet to his 22.5 million followers, after the diver criticised him in a television interview.
And the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US agency that oversees stock markets and investing, filed a lawsuit against Musk in September, accusing the billionaire of making a series of “false and misleading” statements on Twitter.
Meanwhile on Mars, Nasa’s first robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet is due to touchdown on Monday after a six-month voyage through space.
Traveling 301 million miles (548m km) from Earth, the Mars InSight spacecraft was due to reach its destination on the dusty, rock-strewn surface of the Red Planet at about 8pm UK time.
The mission control team at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles prepared to conduct a final adjustment to the InSight’s flight path on Sunday to manoeuvre the spacecraft closer toward its entry point over Mars.
If all goes according to plan, InSight will streak into the pink Martian sky nearly 24 hours later at 12,000 miles per hour (19,310 kilometers per hour). Its 77-mile descent to the surface will be slowed by atmospheric friction, a giant parachute and retro rockets.
When it lands 6-1/2 minutes later, it will be travelling a mere 5 mph (8 kph).